**WFP celebrates and embraces diversity. It is committed to the principle of equal employment opportunity for all its employees and**
**gender, gender identity and/or expression, sexual orientation, religion or belief, HIV status, physical or mental disability.**
**Job Title**:Food Technologist Expert
**Type of Contract**:Consultant
**Division: SCOQ - **Food Safety and Quality Unit
**Duty Station (City, Country)**: Rome HQ, Italy
**Duration**:11 months
**BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE OF THE ASSIGNMENT**:
WFP is scaling up efforts to prevent and treat all forms of malnutrition in line with Sustainable Development Goal 2. To do so, WFP is supporting governments and working with other UN agencies,



NGO partners as well as with the private sector to increase access, availability, demand and consumption of nutritious foods by vulnerable populations.
Following growing demand for processed and specialized nutritious products, increased interest amongst WFP Country Offices and host governments, private sector funding and food quality identified as a corporate risk, the role of the Food Quality and Safety unit is evolving. At the same time, under the newly formed Supply Chain Division, WFP is strengthening its food quality and safety management by transitioning from end - product testing to quality assurance. This is done through enhanced product specifications, supplier audits and development of effective incident management systems.
The number and range of new foods proposed for use in WFP operations has been increasing, especially foods proposed to treat and/or prevent undernutrition. In order to enhance the alignment of new, or existing, foods with WFP food specifications and/or guidance, there is a need to proactively support food development initiatives in an early stage.
**ACCOUNTABITLITIES / RESPONSIBILITIES**:
1. Lead SCOQ Research & Development projects: Acting as the main unit interphase with WFP Nutrition Division:



Support the integration of quality-related activities into WFP Nutrition programmes; coordinate with stakeholders from HQ units, RBs and COs to incorporate FSQ into activities such as food fortification and new or local food development. Manage ongoing shelf life studies and share recommendations for product update with NUT and SCOQ stakeholders.
2. Lead Product Innovation management: Coordinate design and successful execution of WFP’s product innovation workshop in collaboration with service providers. Manage innovation initiatives by coordinating with SCOQ, RBs and COs, NFC, SNF-WG, WFP Innovation Accelerator and suppliers.
3. Support WFP SCOQ operations in supplier FSQ capacity strengthening in collaboration with strategic partnerships: Collaborate with GFSI to support supplier FSQ capacity strengthening through the Global Market programme initiative.



Collaborate with FAO to support development or consolidation of guidance material on toxic seed management. Support implementation of the above in collaboration with HQ units, RBs and COs.
4. Lead annual product compliance testing: Plan and budget the annual compliance testing plan with feedback from SCOQ (HQ and RBs) and get approval from Head of Food Safety and Quality. Update SOP for compliance testing and provide RBs tools for effective implementation of the plan. Support RBs in discussing compliance testing findings and provide a year-end report.
5. Support development of regulatory overview for contaminants management: Consolidate repository of low probability contaminants limits for WFP products for to support SCOQ. Specification Manager for specification development, guidance to auditors and suppliers as needed with the aim to strengthen Quality Assurance. Engage with regulatory database providers to create quarterly Horizon scanning reports on emerging contaminants and new regulations.



Coordinate discussions on emerging contaminants with SCOQ and Inter-Agency network.
6. New Foods Committee (NFC): Participate in NFC meetings to support FSQ evaluation of new foods.
**DELIVERABLES QUALIFICATIONS AND EXPERIENCE REQUIRED**:
Report or relevant documentation corresponding to all of the above responsibilities.
**QUALIFICATIONS AND EXPERIENCE REQUIRED**:
**Education**:
Advanced University degree in Food science and technology, Nutrition or other field relevant to international development assistance
**Experience**:
Desirable minimum five years post graduate, progressively responsible, job related experience preferably in the area of Programme and Nutrition in a humanitarian context
**Knowledge and Skills**:
Demonstrates ability to analyse and consolidate quantitative and qualitative information from different sources to develop thorough recommendations and inform decisions.



Demonstrates the ability to interpret FSQ data in the context of WFP specialised fields to contribute to technical programme design, implementation and monitoring.
**Languages**:
Fluency in oral and written English with an intermediate knowledge of another of